Dem
51
GOP
49
As we have noted many times, the respective chairs of the Republican and Democratic parties have two jobs: (1) win elections and (2) raise money. And since #2 is really just an aspect of #1, you can just boil it down to "win elections," if you really want.
By either, or both, standards, Ronna Romney McDaniel has been a terrible chair of the RNC. Since she took office in January of 2017, the Republicans have had three cycles where they underperformed expectations, and have gone 0-1 in presidential elections. Fundraising has also been anemic, such that the central party has less money in its coffers right now than at any time in the last decade ($8 million, and $1 million of debt).
Normally, in these circumstances, McDaniel would have been out of work long ago. However, her one trump card has been, well, Donald Trump. He runs the Party, and as long as he wants her to stay, she can stay. The members of the Republican National Committee kowtow to him at all turns and, besides, they know the disastrous record of the last 7 years is really his fault, not hers.
Unfortunately for McDaniel, she appears to have officially lost the former president's support. This weekend, he was interviewed on one of the right-wing networks where he's willing to appear, and was asked about her performance. He said: "I think she did great when she ran Michigan for me. I think she did OK, initially, in the RNC. I would say right now, there'll probably be some changes made."
Why the change in Trump's thinking? He did not say, but we can come up with at least four plausible explanations:
The Donald is mercurial, of course, and could change his mind at the drop of a (MAGA) hat. That said, he's alluded to his disenchantment with McDaniel several times in the past month or so, and if a change is going to be made in 2024, it needs to be made before things really heat up. So, if she can hang on until May or so, she's probably OK until the end of her current term (January 2025). But until May dawns, she should be very nervous. (Z)